4. Blow

A stroke, (German, bläuen, to beat or strike.)

At one blow. By one stroke.

The first blow is half the battle. Well begun is half done. Pythagoras used to say, “The beginning is half the whole.” “Incipe: Dimidium facti est cœpisse” (Ausonius). “Dimidium facti, qui cœpit, habet” (Horace). “Ce nʹest que le premier pas qui coûte.”

Without striking a blow. Without coming to a contest.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.